Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Kumihimish: 7-strand braid

I don't know the Japanese name for this structure. I have seen it called the 7-strand braid, simple braid, friendship bracelet braid (although I long ago learned a different technique that went by that name), girl scout braid, and it probably goes by other names. I'd be interested to learn if it has a Japanese name within the kumihimo tradition, or if it has some other "official" name.

Seven threads are equally spaced around the disk, except one empty space is left, for the next thread to move into (creating a new empty space). The instructions for how I do it are thus:

Turn the disk so the empty space is at 6 PM (South, or toward you)
Move the strand to the right of Noon (North) into the empty space.
Repeat.

This braid is fast & easy to do because there is only one move, repeated over and over. It's the kumihimo equivalent of garter stitch in knitting. Good for TV work.

I used dot stickers to mark my disk so it has 8 dots instead of 4, to keep track of where the threads should go.

Simple Kumihimo is a page about one braider's study of the 7-strand braid. She has analyzed both left-handed and right-handed versions, I have done just the right-hand version.

I analyzed a 7-color 7-strand version, and found that I'm not sure I agree with her analysis. Here's a scan of what I worked out (warts and all):


The repeat is a double lozenge shape, and once I knew that, I was able to design several simple color patterns.

I hope this info is useful to others. Please don't re-post my pic.